#NTUDEGREESHOW Spotlight: Liam Clair

This week's Spotlight piece features BA (Hons) Textile Design student Liam Clair

From Enter Plethora, Liam Clair, BA (Hons) Textile Design, 2019.

In the run-up to the Art and Design Degree Show, we will be sharing a series of student projects from across the 26 participating courses through #NTUDEGREESHOW Spotlights.

Enter Plethora

Enter Plethora is a conceptual fashion project which transcends ephemeral feelings and moments into reality through experimental photography and large scale paintings. Emotions experienced through a strong connection to music has allowed me to harness a handwriting which conveys visceral and ethereal qualities. Qualities which encourage the viewer to delve deep into their consciousness and retrieve their perception; this project intends to provoke the mind and question human nature.

Having a conceptual approach to Textile Design has been at the forefront of my practice since starting the course in 2016. I feel that the future of design often lies in the secrets of the past and this is a core aspect of Enter Plethora. Being inspired by Wassily Kandinsky and his theories on Synaesthesia found in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, I have developed a connection between my dissertation and my practical work which has strengthened the meaning behind my design journey.

From Enter Plethora, Liam Clair, BA (Hons) Textile Design, 2019.

A core belief of Kandinsky which deeply resonated with me was that in every work of art there are two elements: the inner and the outer. The inner is the emotion stirred within the soul of the artist and is fundamental in order for the work of art to be authentic. Secondly the outer element is the embodiment, or the design, of the emotion felt within the artist which “has the capacity to evoke a similar emotion in the observer.”(Kandinsky 1947, p.24).

This resonance has now manifested in my final major project into an elaborate venture which combines innovative processes with digital and screen printing methods to create fabrics which engulf and immerse the wearer. Clothing is not just something we wear, it is a vessel which takes art from the canvas and into reality.

I have always painted onto a canvas but now there is potential for people to embody and wear my art and that is amazing.

Liam Clair

Find out more about the BA (Hons) Textile Design Degree Show here.